determine latest finish date by milestone

[Riko Wichmann]

Dear all,

I need to implement the following scenario:

I have an *external* milestone "M1: final system available". This
external milestone links into a plan defining and setting up and running
the test environment. M1 defines, when the tests have to be finished.
Let's say, my plan contains a task "T1: system test".

Now, the end date of T1 cannot be later than M1. How do I implement
that, so that

1) I get a warning, when my planning causes the Finish Date of T1 to be
later than M1

2) warning, if M1 moves forward, so that as a result T1 would be too late.

I toyed around with various constraints and task dependencies without
success. The easiest would be to feed a deadline on T1 with the date of
M1, but that can only be done "by hand" I assume ...

We are using Project 2007 (Enterprise).

Any hints or ideas would be much appreciated.

Thanks and cheers,

Riko

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Riko,

The important thing about end milestones is that they are only estimates.
Typing a must finish on date constraint doesn't make it happen. So, use the
As Soon As Possible constraint (ie no constraint applied) and then set up a
Deadline date for your milestone. This will put an indicator on that date
on the Gantt chart. If your earlier tasks run late, your end milestone will
move out. If it exceeds the Deadline, an indicator will appear in the
Indicators column as a warning of what is likely to happen. That could take
care of your scenario. However, if you're using Project server, you might
like to try posting on the microsoft.public.project.server newsgroup.
Please see FAQ Item: 24. Project Newsgroups. FAQs, companion products and
other useful Project information can be seen at this web address:
http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Mike Glen
Project MVP

 

[Riko Wichmann]

Hi Glen,

thank you for your answer, but I'm afraid deadlines will only take care
of one of the warning I need. It will certainly give me an indicator, if
the task runs late and pushed the end-date (or an associated milestone)
past the deadline.
However, if the *external* milestone M1 moves to an *earlier* date, the
deadline will (of course) not fire.

However, the task now, that should be finished before this milestone is
reached will not know about this shift.

Cheers,

Riko

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

I beg to disagree.

Adding a deadline to a floating milestone (in Project 2007 at least) has a
big, big weakness.
It does not show the positive slack you have left - buffer management is
these days the buzzword in project management!
A must finish on milestone is perfect and has in Project 2007 more function
than a deadline.

Greetings,

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[Mike Glen]

Surely, the logic link from M1 to T1 would take care of this movement if
it's not constrained.


Mike Glen
Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials